[Rule Horror] + [Mild Horror] + [Criminal Investigation] + [Mutual Healing] + [Intangible Cultural Heritage Paper Effigies] + [Chinese-Style Horror] + [Case-by-Case Mysteries]
My name is Ning Zhaoxi, and I run a paper effigy shop at the end of an old street.
The craft passed down through my family allows paper people and horses to travel the paths between worlds.
On the night of the seventh day after a death, a man drenched from head to toe came into my shop. He took out a photograph and said he wanted to commission something to burn for the deceased.
The person in the photograph was him.
He said his name was Lu Zhi, and that he was a criminal investigator. Three days earlier, someone had pushed him into a river, and he was still clinging to life beneath the water.
He also said that the corpse pulled from the river half a month ago had paper ash from my shop wedged beneath its fingernails.
From that night on, the paper people I made began moving their eyes on their own, and the paper horses I burned kept running back in the middle of the night.
And every night, that detective came to knock on my door:
“Ning Zhaoxi, help me investigate the case.”
“What’s the payment?”
He pointed to the wavering flame of his soul above his head:
“My life is yours.”
